Dr. Gibbs on Predicting Response to Treatment in Osteosarcoma

C. Parker Gibbs Jr., MD, Eugene L. Jewett professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, chief medical officer, University of Florida Health Shands Hospital, division chief, musculoskeletal oncology, University of Florida College of Medicine, discusses the use of cell cycle checkpoint regulators to indicate response to treatment in osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma is a highly malignant disease in children and adolescents. However, there are few prognostic markers that indicate how a patient is going to do after treatment with chemotherapy and surgery, explains Gibbs. Currently, a patient’s prognosis is based on tumor characteristics following chemotherapy and surgical resection, says Gibbs.

Currently, there is no way to predict a patient’s likelihood of response to chemotherapy or risk of metastatic disease prior to treatment. However, a study looking at 2 cell cycle checkpoint inhibitors, P16 and P21, have shown promise for indicating aggressive disease biology. When these 2 biologic markers were evaluated in over 100 osteosarcoma specimens, investigators found an association between their expression, metastatic disease, and overall survival in children and adolescents. Gibbs believes this is a major advance because it could allow patients to be stratified prior to treatment and help personalize treatment.